ARMY SPORT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 193, 15 December 1941, Page 4

ARMY SPORT

N.Z.E.F. IN EGYPT "THE BEST EQUIPPED" *. - ' "No army in the Middle East is better supplied with sporting facilities than the N.Z.E.F." states LieutenantiiColonel F. Waiter commissioner for the National Patriotic. Fund Board in the Middle East, in his latest report to the: board. In support of this contention Colonel Waite has given details of sports gear issued, the subsidies granted to sports committees, and an account of the general sports activities ol the New Zealanders. The figures indicate the extent to which sport is encouraged in the N.Z.E.F. and the keenness of New Zealanders for football and other organised games, such as hockey and baseball. The lists supplied by Colonel Waite show that between them the 4th, sth and 6th Brigades, Divisional Artillery, and Divisional A.S.C. have had issued to them from the Patriotic Fund Board's store in Cairo 104 footballs and bladders, 128 pairs of shorts, 128 jerseys, 128 pairs of stockings, 280 pairs of boots,, 267 hockey sticks, 26 hockey balls, ;69 softballs, eight medicine balls,<<««^HL- ; -*| sets of deck tennis quoits, arid 46 table tennis sets. The list of sports equipment issued from the Patriotic Fund stocks for the benefit of the men at the N.Z.E.F. base at Maadi is even more imposing. This includes 59 footballs, 204 pairs of shorts, 813 jerseys, 1012 pairs of stockings, 936 pairs of boots, 14& hockey sticks, 60 hockey balls, and 35 hockey shin pads. In addition, subsidies amounting to over £400 were made to the base sports committees between June and last month, the sports' covered being boxing, wrestling, cricket, athletics, tennis, howls, Association. N football, baseball, rowing and tennis.